Politics is a dirty business. Gentlemen are interested in it, but shamefully, like some secret vice. It isn’t until politics has become history that it becomes honorable.

But sometimes you see history in the making and you have to own your vice. Paul Ryan’s speech last night, even in this degenerate age of oratory, had a line that may outlive this campaign season. We are being tempted, he said, to be “a country where everything is free but us.” (more…)

With the impending nomination of Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for President of the United States, I believe it is all but inevitable that Orrin Hatch will be proved right, and the Democrats will make a serious effort to throw the Church at Romney. It’s possible that Obama’s official campaign will try to preserve plausible deniability on this ugly tactic, but it will be part of the overall Democratic campaign strategy nonetheless.

So what about the Church will the Democrats throw at Romney? Three very likely candidates are polygamy, the ban on ordaining blacks to the priesthood, and the Church’s opposition to gay marriage. I am going to try to preempt some of this attack with a (probably very long) post on these topics. Let it be understood that what I post is the opinions of Brother Vader, a mostly orthodox but decidedly unconventional Latter-day Saint, and that I am not an official spokesman for the Church. (more…)

I pledged to continue supporting Romney in spite of an endorsement by Carly Fiorina. Even the best candidate is going to get endorsements from odd places, because odd people make their endorsements for odd reasons. So even the latest endorsement, by KISS frontman Gene Simmons, will not keep me from supporting Romney.

His Majesty: “Though I’m not a U.S. citizen, I, too, hope to see Romney elected.”

Gingrich’s space ideas, some of ’em, make me want to hoot ‘n’ holler. But his other notions plumb make me want to shoot the cheatin’ varmint. Them thar fancifal decoctions of what he is pleased to call his headpiece are dumber than a steer in a dairy.